Running/Cycling Thread - 2016 Style! - Page 8
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mtmentat
United States142 Posts
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N.geNuity
United States5111 Posts
watched the olympic 10k last night, I think rupp will do well in the marathon. Didn't have the closing speed but looked from whatever I know as an unknowing amateur.. really quickly I think I may buy a bike off craigslist tomorrow, seems like a good deal for a real nice road bike (gently used 5 y/o motobecane le champion for $500, claims very very light use <500 miles). Specs are here- https://images.craigslist.org/00W0W_h7hDkY48Kzy_1200x900.jpg I know absolutely nothing about cycling, and the intent is I would probably want to do a olympic length or half ironman length triathlon in a few years (like 3-4). Was planning to just get a simple starter road bike and see if I actually go through with that in 2+ years but I can plop down more for a used higher end bike. Not that this is the highest end bike but seems like if I maintain this I may not really need to do an upgrade later, for my casual noncompetitive race needs. Any insight to make sure I don't get scammed on this or moreso any specific resources for bike maintenance and cycling? I'll inspect for signs of wear and such but I may not be great at identifying them. Will be meeting at a police department so this sounds legit. No matter what bike I do eventually get, there's a wealth of stuff out there of course, but any resource recommended by you guys would be helpful to me as I learn things for the very first time. And I'll go read Lmsaters stuff lol. | ||
mtmentat
United States142 Posts
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mtmentat
United States142 Posts
Poll: Should Marathon Aid Stations Have Calories Basic foods like bananas/orange slices (5) Fancy foods like gels/energy bars (0) Liquid Calories (0) Just Water and Electrolyte, no Calories (assuming runners always carry their own) (0) 5 total votes Your vote: Should Marathon Aid Stations Have Calories (Vote): Basic foods like bananas/orange slices | ||
Jetaap
France4814 Posts
I'm going to get an arthroscan to see if there is some visible damage but that's really not a good news . | ||
FiWiFaKi
Canada9858 Posts
Don't be afraid of getting a knee brace or anything, especially for sports, your body will really thank you when you're 40+. Anyway, pretty shitty news on my end too... Went cycling yesterday, speed was the name of the game I suppose, and what you'll all judge me for, not wearing a helmet. I was on a sidewalk, turning into a parking lot, going some 20-25km/h, pretty sharp turn plus quite a few little rocks on the ground, so I slow to 10-15km/h... Nope, not enough. And as anyone who has had a cycling crash knows, once you lose grip and your wheels slip from under you, there's no saving it, and straight down you go. So the end result, smashing my head on the pavement, 6 stitches on my forehead, awfully close to my temple, nasty road rash on my whole cheek and shoulder, bruise on my side, scraped skin on my hands, super frail wrist and sore hand, thumb with that feeling of when you bend a finger back playing basketball, big bruise on my side. So now it's antibiotics and rest, and I just woke up at 3:30am, so fml. Besides that, my glasses bent in the impact, hopefully fixable, my clip from my clipless pedal came out of my shoe, and one of the two hooks bent out of place, hopefully fixable, or a hopefully cheap clip replacement. Besides that, luckily for my bike it looks like I took the brunt of that fall, so besides being soaked with blood, looks to be undamaged. Cycling clothes also surprisingly didn't fair too bad. Also I don't feel like I have any head trauma or a concussion, which is quite fortunate for a head injury like that. Then I walked to the clinic, just happen to conviniently be conviniently closed, so I had to walk home with my hands, arms, and face showered in blood. I walk in, dad asks me hoe my bike ride was, I say good so I can survey the damage, and yeah, no... General practitioner it is. Well, I've learned I need to get better at falling. Wear a helmet kids | ||
mtmentat
United States142 Posts
Bad string of luck for TL running... ...hope everyone rests up/heals up quickly (Bonham, Jetaap, FiWiFaKi)! | ||
L_Master
United States7946 Posts
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L_Master
United States7946 Posts
Pikes Peak Thoughts/Report: The preparation leading up to the race was good. I felt like the fitness was in a respectable spot, and that I'd done the right preparation in terms of bigger gear work necessary for climbing steep slopes for long duration. I've never really gotten the hang of tapering, always feel a little off leading up to the race, but on race day I felt decent. The start ended up FUCKING STRESSFUL. Got there hour early feeling comfortable. Had to pickup packet then things got fun..there were only 3 porta potties...yea THREE porta potties for a national fucking championships race. Wtf? Ended up waiting almost 30 minutes for that...which left me only 20 mins. Go back to the car, take the bike out (that I had checked over the night before) aaannnnnddddddddddddd...FLAT FRONT TIRE!! Awesome! No time to change anything, so just pumped it up and hoped for the best that it was a slow leak and would hold air at least to the top (it did). Then raced to pin on bib number. My warmup was basically nervous panicking and some running around in bike shoes. Gun goes off and the first 25 seconds are really slow. Like recovery pace slow. Then somebody shouts out "are we gonna fucking race or what?" and things get rolling. Couple big guns at the front start laying down viscous pace up a couple of rollers, putting me pretty far in the red. I knew that competing with the real strong boys of this field was totally unrealistic, but I also wanted to hang with the pack for the first 1.5 miles because it's flatish and good drafting benefits before it kicks up 1.5M in. Maybe tried too hard to hang on though, because I was pretty deep in the red hitting the first steep section of 7 miles at about 9.5% grade. To the point I just backed off and pedaled real easy for about a minute to bring the HR down into some level of sanity. Then gradually ramped up from there and tried to find my rhythm. I never really quite settled in the way I would have hoped. Didn't completely shake the readline feeling, despite being on what I thought would have been a decent wattage. No disaster, but I was hoping to feel decent at 270w-280w, but felt a little pressured at 265w or so. From there it was pretty much grind for the next hour to the top of the "9% corkscrew" up to 12,800 feet. I was probably the first guy to let the pack go, so over the next 40 minutes I picked off a good 10 guys or so that had tried way to hard to hang onto the lead group and blown their fuse and were now paying the price. Unfortunately, as I worked up towards timberline I began to fade. Somewhat expected given the massive altitude change, but more than I would have liked. After that corkscrew their is a short, flat section, a quick downhill, short uphill, and then another brief downhill before the last 2 miles around 11% to the top. Just sat on smooth pace through the flatter section, and then tried to give it what I had left the last 2 miles, which sadly was....not too much. I struggled to hold 220w for the last 18 minutes. Finished up in right around 1:28. Race itself no regrets, I don't feel like I made any critical mistakes in my racing or preparation and gave it everything I had on that day. That in mind, it's still not the race I would have liked or what I felt should be achievable. In an ideal situation with weight and training goals I felt that sub 1:20 should have been a shoe in, with sub 1:15 being an absolutely perfect dream race. Didn't get anywhere near the weight I wanted (62kg was goal, raced at 68.5kg), but even with that weight I felt like 1:25 was a good target, with around 1:22 being possible with great legs. It was definitely a stronger performance than last year, about 15w/2:45 quicker. It's possible this race just isn't for me. I've never really felt good power up at altitude. Granted I've never been up there fresh and tested myself, but I'm often struggling to hold any sort of pace (in running terms, I struggle to hold 5k pace + 2:00-2:30 per mile at 14'k). Despite feeling decent, this objectively didn't seem to be my best race. I did a training run of the Peak earlier in the season, and started from Manitou, which means I had already ridden steady for over 90 minutes before the race start line, and averaged 236w from the race start to the top. In the race today I only did 241w. For an extra 90 mins of riding in the middle of a big weak, I tend to think that indicates I didn't have the best day. Sometime I will probably go up and ride the last 2 miles as hard as I can fresh and see what difference I see in output in order to find out if it's an altitude problem or a training problem that's caused less than desirable results. 2016 Season Thoughts: From a training standpoint I'd give this year a solid B+/A-, that's by far the most structured and disciplined I've been in training. Yes, there is room for improvement, but not a whole lot without trying to commit to training with pro level discipline. On the not so hot side...the racing aspect of the season sucked. The actual results I had were fairly respectable, but I had it in mind to really start to learn bike racing. The first mistake was totally on my end, took wayyy to long getting winter gear and even after that had way to many excuses for not getting out to more Acacia/Team rides. That must change for a decent 2017. The other downside is that I was hoping to race something like 30+ times this season as opposed to the 8 (5 mass start, non hill climb) times I did. Most of that was financial. With any luck I'll be in a better place to afford to race more next year, but right now I'm a broke as hell post college student. If the financial situation is good, the main goal in 2017 is going to be group riding and racing, even if that means putting optimal training/pure fitness more towards the backburner. Learning how to race is just too important in cycling. Unless you're comically stronger than everyone else, you can't consistently podium or win without having your instincts, pack riding, and tactics sharp. From a weight diet standpoints I'd give this season a C+/B-. January to mid February was amazing. I ate incredibly clean, and dropped from 69kg down to 64.5kg. Was on a great role. Then I started really battling random sickness. I was sick 3 times in February and once in early March. All were just nagging colds, but enough to ensure I wanted to eat enough food to combat the illness, but it also left me weaker mentally and I let that comfort food back in. Also ended up overeating some from a comfort standpoint and was back up to 67kg by first race in late March. At that race I was really careless with my eating, and overate massively as we went out for lunch and dinner consistently, and I was eating big breakfasts to fuel racing. Gained almost 3kg over that week in Tuscon. Got my diet back under okay control after that, but didn't motivate myself to drop weight, so ended up racing 95% of the season at 70-71kg...actually a bit heavier than last year. On the plus side, my results were dramatically better...as my fitness was quite a bit better. I guess my final thoughts are that I'm pretty dissapointed about the season on the whole. I had extremely ambitious goals, and didn't really get anywhere near them. I'd say 50%-60% of that was a result of diet, and the other 40% from not being able to race and get to group rides as I would have liked to. On the plus side, the training was very solid so I'll still have the fitness to work with, and I've learned FAR more in the past 8 months about what works well for me eating wise than I have in the 26 years prior. I'm well positioned, just gotta execute this next go round. | ||
L_Master
United States7946 Posts
I'm done racing bikes for 2016. No more races left available to do. Somewhat burnt out mentally from the structure of intense bike training for 8 months too. Which means.....IT"S RUNNING TIME BABY!! I'll still ride the bike some, but the focus now switches to hamstring dominant propulsion. Of which I'm pretty excited about. Recently smashed the incline in just a smidge over 23 minutes, which puts me well into the top 1% and top 25 all time. I also recently ran a favorite trail loop, and at a good threshold pace went over 2:00 faster through an approximately 10' section than last year, despite similar weight. Then also on the treadmill did a mile at 5:50 pace and that felt really, really good too. Almost threshold like. Haven't really done any workouts yet, as my achilles needs to be very gradually eased into running (last year took 5 weeks to hit 20mpw/30kpw), but early running signs are very positive. I seem to be going uphill on foot in a way I never imagined, and general fitness seems at least as good, quite possibly much better, than where I was last year when I popped 17:56. Soooo....I'm excited! My optimistic goal is to go sub 16:30. That's on the ambitious side, but sub 17:00 I think is a for sure realistic goal. I ran 17:56 last year off of 3 weeks of about 100km of running, with 3 workouts (straights/turns, 3x1k, 4x1k). I think I'm at least a little more fit, and would like to think a full 2-3 month cycle should be worth 20-30 seconds over 5k. Weight is coming along good now too, back on the focus bandwagon. 17:56 was run at 68kg last year, and I'm down to 66kg now, with a goal of racing at 62-63 kg. Looking forward to seeing how workouts progress, and I'll get my first real fitness gutcheck Saturday after this as I plan on racing the Nielson 2M challenge. | ||
GoTuNk!
Chile4591 Posts
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FiWiFaKi
Canada9858 Posts
On August 28 2016 02:52 GoTuNk! wrote: As part of my crossfit preparation (I switched from powerlifting roughly 8 months ago) I've been doing "lots" of running and Airdyne. Today I'm gonna take it a step further and finally ride an actual bike in more than 5 years. Whyd you switch to Crossfit anyway GoTunk? You seemed to maybe be the most dedicated person to strength training and powerlifting out of anyone in the TLH&F thread. Anyway, biking is great, in Chile I can only imagine you must have some great cycling trails in the Andes, if you're committed enough. | ||
GoTuNk!
Chile4591 Posts
On August 28 2016 05:13 FiWiFaKi wrote: Whyd you switch to Crossfit anyway GoTunk? You seemed to maybe be the most dedicated person to strength training and powerlifting out of anyone in the TLH&F thread. Anyway, biking is great, in Chile I can only imagine you must have some great cycling trails in the Andes, if you're committed enough. Being 100% honest, because I was at a point where I needed to take "special vitamins" to make any progress beyond 10 pounds on a lift, per year, and I'm not ready to do that yet. Competing internationally is a pain in the ass aswell, and national competitions suck balls. Crossfit is somewhat more fun (and competitive) and I can always go back, my squat/DL are almost back to their old level and I'm more flexible and without muscle imbalances. Edit: I rode some bike, and didn't fall. Win for today. | ||
FiWiFaKi
Canada9858 Posts
On August 28 2016 05:47 GoTuNk! wrote: Being 100% honest, because I was at a point where I needed to take "special vitamins" to make any progress beyond 10 pounds on a lift, per year, and I'm not ready to do that yet. Competing internationally is a pain in the ass aswell, and national competitions suck balls. Crossfit is somewhat more fun (and competitive) and I can always go back, my squat/DL are almost back to their old level and I'm more flexible and without muscle imbalances. Edit: I rode some bike, and didn't fall. Win for today. I guess that's the one nice thing about being casual with weightlifting. Whenever I want to go hard and make progress, I can turn up my diet, my sleep, and a more structured routine, and boom, progress my squat 5x5-8 from 185lbs to 255lbs at 5lbs a week. I've never been at a point where all my lifts stagnate that hard, but I can imagine it must be really demotivating. I'm glad you didn't go to the dark side though, unless your main life goal is lifting some heavy weights at competition, not worth the more or less irreversible damage to your liver and blood pressure, even with "responsible" use. Anyway, I've never done CrossFit, but I definitely don't portray it negatively like those silly videos or a lot of people online. It's much the reason why I've been cycling, playing squash and badminton, along with more casual weightlifting on the side. It's difficult for me to be committed to a strict and heavy regimen of weightlifting for so long. I just go into my basement gym here and there when I'm hyped up, and go do some lifts for exercises I enjoy doing, and based on which muscles are not sore (mostly bodyweight stuff, plus big compound lifts). I haven't seen you post any videos there recently, but I enjoyed seeing your powerlifting videos in the thread, so if you're doing some pretty neat exercise in CrossFit, you should post 'em up! | ||
mtmentat
United States142 Posts
From what I read in your post, I don't think you should be too disappointed with your season. Here in CO we definitely can get caught up in a "race-with-the-pro's" mentality, and while fun it needs it be balanced (IMO) with life and multiple goals outside of running/biking. Your climb sounds very much like my experience with Mt. Evans the first time: a big learning experience. High altitude anything is harder, and the faster/more aerobic the activity the worse it gets. I cannot actually fathom trying to race on a bike at that altitude: I barely jog along at about 75% of race pace if I'm doing well. | ||
L_Master
United States7946 Posts
1) Letting weight totally get away from me after busting ass for 6 weeks and really starting to get in crazy shape, almost back there now, but that was dumb 2) Not being able to race the way I wanted to financially (not disappointing from the sense of feeling like a failure, but more that it stunted the learning I wanted to get out of this season to really be a contributor to the team next season), and especially not getting out on group rides and team rides the way I needed to. | ||
L_Master
United States7946 Posts
Did 8x400 w/60s jog + 4x200 w/75s jog. Went 84, 84, 83, 82, 81, 79, 78, 72; then 33, 32, 33, 35 (250m, so 28 pace). 80.2 average. Nothing super taxing, but happy with it. Basically just some rhythm 400s at a bit faster than 5k goal pace to get the turnover going without being overly stressful. Very controlled. I'm sure I could run the workout at least 4-5 seconds per 400 faster if I was doing it as more of a mile type workout. | ||
mtmentat
United States142 Posts
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FiWiFaKi
Canada9858 Posts
Yesterday, I did my usual 38km bike ride to gf's house, in a time of 1:15, compared to my best of 1:11. The times aren't extremely meaningful since I'm biking through plenty of traffic lights and traffic as well. On the way back today though, I had a time of 1:18, which I'm very satisfied with, as my house is 150-175m~ higher elevation than hers, so that's not too far off of my PB. I've seen a steady improvement in my times, not sure how much of that was from going down from 185lb -> 171lbs (today), and how much it is my threshold power. Also, not really sure exactly theta vs power should as in angle of pedal cranks and my power output should be, but I feel like I'm not generating very much power at all with my upstroke on the pedal. Particularly, when I'm getting tired, my power output would be the same if I had a clipless pedal or just the standard wal-mart pedal when I'm sitting, so maybe that's something I should work on. Injury wise, my wrist still hurts, yesterday I went to the supermarket, and trying to lift of an 18kg bag of rice wasn't pleasant, though it's been getting better. The doctor today said it's mostly likely some light tendon tear, and those take a bit longer to heal from. I mean I was able to hold on to my bike handlebars for a fair distance, so I'm not a complete cripple, but I'd like to do some weightlifting again, particularly some pull-ups and deadlifts are not feasible at all in my current condition. Besides that, I want to get a power meter... They're so expensive Anyone have any good recommendations? People seem extremely critical of the left crank only power meters, but they are quite a bit cheaper, and I feel like it's some super enthusiasts who dislike that one leg might be 98% the strength of the other, but is the effect really that pronounced? I feel as if I have a balanced posture, and I don't think that one of my legs is much stronger than the other, but idk. | ||
L_Master
United States7946 Posts
On September 01 2016 06:09 FiWiFaKi wrote: Alright, got my stitches removed today, and supposedly it's healing well! Under recommendation, I purchased some Vitamin E cream to make the scarring less bad, so I'll be applying that every day. Yesterday, I did my usual 38km bike ride to gf's house, in a time of 1:15, compared to my best of 1:11. The times aren't extremely meaningful since I'm biking through plenty of traffic lights and traffic as well. On the way back today though, I had a time of 1:18, which I'm very satisfied with, as my house is 150-175m~ higher elevation than hers, so that's not too far off of my PB. I've seen a steady improvement in my times, not sure how much of that was from going down from 185lb -> 171lbs (today), and how much it is my threshold power. Also, not really sure exactly theta vs power should as in angle of pedal cranks and my power output should be, but I feel like I'm not generating very much power at all with my upstroke on the pedal. Particularly, when I'm getting tired, my power output would be the same if I had a clipless pedal or just the standard wal-mart pedal when I'm sitting, so maybe that's something I should work on. Injury wise, my wrist still hurts, yesterday I went to the supermarket, and trying to lift of an 18kg bag of rice wasn't pleasant, though it's been getting better. The doctor today said it's mostly likely some light tendon tear, and those take a bit longer to heal from. I mean I was able to hold on to my bike handlebars for a fair distance, so I'm not a complete cripple, but I'd like to do some weightlifting again, particularly some pull-ups and deadlifts are not feasible at all in my current condition. Besides that, I want to get a power meter... They're so expensive Anyone have any good recommendations? People seem extremely critical of the left crank only power meters, but they are quite a bit cheaper, and I feel like it's some super enthusiasts who dislike that one leg might be 98% the strength of the other, but is the effect really that pronounced? I feel as if I have a balanced posture, and I don't think that one of my legs is much stronger than the other, but idk. Depends on what you want PM for. If you really want 100% accurate data, then left crank probably isn't ideal. For training purposes though it should be reasonably consistent. My only concern is that if overtime your L/R balance changed then your power could appear to trend either upwards or downwards incorrectly. I know that can happen...but I don't know how often or to what degree. Power shouldn't be generated on the upstroke from everything I read. Maybe when you're sprinting, but beyond that almost all the studies I've found have shown that efficiency tends to decrease when you worry about generating power via pulling with the hammies. Using more oxygen for the same wattage is not especially favorable Nice improvement by the way! Assuming no crazy winds, I'd need to know more about the route to know where the improvement lies. If it's constantly up and down then a bunch of that is weight. If it's flat, it's mostly coming from improved power (which means your climbing should be significantly better) | ||
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